Condos, boat docks planned for NSB development

Silvestri Investments, a Houston development company, purchased the 14-acre property at 99 North Causeway last month for about $2.68 million from Atlantic Housing Partners.

By RICHARD CONNrichard.conn@news-jrnl.com

NEW SMYRNA BEACH ­— Many residents have hoped for the return of an upscale condominium project planned along the North Causeway that went by the wayside several years ago.

They may get their wish.

Silvestri Investments, a Houston development company, is planning to build a project called Isola Bella that could include just over 200 condominiums and amenities including boat docks, a swimming pool and tennis courts.

“This will be a highly amenitized project,” Dan Silvestri, president of Silvestri Investments said Wednesday.

Silvestri purchased the 14-acre property at 99 North Causeway last month for about $2.68 million from Atlantic Housing Partners.

Rob Camporese, a vice president and general manager with Silvestri, said the project will be similar in some ways to Island Town Center, which was a $60 million mixed-use development that was pitched for the site back in 2005 and was set to include 202 condominiums, 100 boat slips, a restaurant and gazebo and walking trails. That plan never materialized.

Unlike Island Town Center, however, Isola Bella likely won’t include any commercial development, Camporese said. He said he’s met with the original architect and designers for Island Town Center.

“We’ve been in talks with them and we’re going to be building something similar to that,” he said.

Isola Bella is one of the islands along Lake Maggiore in North Italy. While the North Causeway project is still in preliminary design, Silvestri said the development would hopefully have an “Italianate or Mediterranean feel to it.”

A 2005 development agreement that runs with the Causeway property caps the number of units that could be built on the site at 202.

Camporese said Silvestri would probably look to build the maximum amount of condominiums allowed on the site, but that it was too early to say exactly how many condos or boat slips would be planned for the project.

Marty Danaher, one of the organizers of New Smyrna Beach Citizens for Smart Growth, said his group is pleased, at least initially, about what they’ve heard of Silvestri’s plans for the site.

“From what we’ve been told, it looks to be consistent with the concept and intent of the Island Town Center project, which is what we’ve asked for from the beginning,” he said.

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